Pilots and Pirates

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Today we went to Baltimore to join in the "Star Spangled Sailabration" that is taking place there as they celebrate the bicentennial of the War of 1812. I feel really bad that I do not know why on earth there was a war in 1812 and what it did for us, but I will look that up and let everyone know since I was not alone in this lack of knowledge. (By the way, Rodney's cousin, Ora Jane, informed us today that they have 2 relatives that fought in this war. So cool) The first thing that we did was drive over to Chesapeake Bay and find a place to sit to watch the airshow. We found an awesome spot on some rocks right by the water, and it was perfect with the temp in the 80's and an awesome breeze coming off of the water. We were there for a couple hours, and at first the airshow moved really slow, having a plane or two come by and then a lull where nothing came for long patches of time. There were neat planes, but no real excitement.

And then came the Blue Angles. Seriously, need I say more. They, of course, were awesome!

What made it even more fun was that my friend Lori and her kids had never been to an airshow before, so this was thier first and it was all so exciting and new to them. What an awesome thing to see for your first airshow!

After we were done there we headed to the Inner Harbor to take a look at the Tall Ships that came in from all over the world. They were super cool, and we were excited to go tour them- and then we got there along with 200,000 other people and realized that we would be in line for hours to go through one. In the end we just walked around the harbor and enjoyed the views from the outside of the ships. It was cool, but it was very crowded, so eventually we decided we had had our fill and made our way back to the car.

Of course we could not leave without a detour to the candy shop for some treats and gelato!

I was going to go by the giant box of Nerds for my brother Johnathon, but when we got in the store we realized that it was just a giant box with a few little boxes of Nerds inside- for $35! I just coudn't make myself spend that on it, but had it been full of Nerds it would have been headed to UT this summer.

It was such a fun, fantastic, fabulous first day of East Coast vacation today. We are so greatful to our AWESOME friends, the Haldeman's, for letting us come stay with them and be a part of thier summer adventures :)